Solano College baseball will get new look under Sillanpaa for 2018

Being around Scott Stover for the last five seasons, Tyren Sillanpaa has an eye for what works on the baseball field.

That doesn’t necessarily mean he plans to be a Stover clone in his first head coaching gig at Solano Community College in 2018. He said he occasionally wants to take some of the Bay Valley Conference opponents by surprise.

“I’ve been around coach Stover for so long, much of my offensive approach is derived from the things I saw him do,” said Sillanpaa, who will take over the program for two years while Stover is on a sabbatical. “To an extent, we will be the same kind of team that we’ve always been. That’s the type of guys that we recruit and I’m certainly not looking to blow up the game plan. But I will open things up a little bit more. I think I’d like to be a little less predictable.”

The Falcons (21-19 last year) missed the Northern California playoffs the last two seasons and would like to get back to the postseason in 2018. They opened the campaign on Saturday against Merced and the first home game is Tuesday against San Mateo.

Sillanpaa is glad to have catcher and American Canyon High grad Jared Denning back for his sophomore season. Denning hit .358 and led the team in doubles (18) and RBIs (38). He is committed to Southeastern Louisiana University after this school year.

“He’s going to anchor us it’s no secret,” the coach said. “He knows it and I think our opponents pretty much know it. He had a great year offensively last year. He led the state in runners caught stealing. He went up to the Sophomore Showcase in the fall and hit the first pitch he saw over the right-field fence. He’s not sneaking up on anybody.”

Solano should be solid up the middle as Aaron Corral (University of New Mexico transfer) returns at shortstop and Cameron Michael (Justin-Siena) returns and will play center field. Roberto Diaz (Bethel) also returns and will move from center to second base and Nate Gutierrez (American Canyon) is another returner who will play first base and add relief help.

“Last year we had a lot of sophomores on the pitching staff and this year we have a lot of sophomores as far as position players,” Gutierrez said. “We’re young in some spots but I think it’s a good, young group.”

Corral is a few weeks away from playing after recovering from an injury in fall ball, so Diaz will start the season at shortstop.

Freshman Kyle Krebs (Carson) will see the start at third base to round out the infield. Freshman Bryce Prybylinski (Liberty) should also see some time at first base.

The corner outfield spots are a bit in flux as Sillanpaa will play the hot hand at times, he said. Sophomores Jorge Chenart (American Canyon) and Justin Brown (St. Joe’s) and freshman Isaiah Verrett (Armijo) are three of the candidates.

Advertisement

The coach said he has about 12 starting pitchers who could eventually settle into the three-man starting rotation. That includes sophomore Tyler Pearsall (Wood), who posted nine saves a year ago, which was second in the state. Pearsall said he doesn’t mind whatever role he ends up filling.

“We have a lot of young guys coming in,” Pearsall said. “Last year I was a closer. This year, I might do a whole bunch of other stuff so I want to be a leader.”

For now, the starting pitchers who are slated to start the first three games are sophomore Teddy Natter (Damonte Ranch) and freshmen John Yancy (Lincoln of Stockton) and Danny Zaldivar (Vanden). Lefty Alex Clouthier from Colorado could also get a start earlier in the year.

Sillanpaa said Gutierrez, Pearsall and Jordan Chana (Clear Lake) all have the ability to close games. Gutierrez will begin the season as the team’s closer.

“Nate has looked fantastic this fall,” Sillanpaa said. “He has added some velocity and he’s added some true swing-and-miss stuff. Going into a situation where we are winning, he looks like the guy we will go to. We know with him, he’s a guy who can give us two, three, four innings successfully in more of an old fashioned Goose Gossage fireman kind of role.”

Marin, Los Medanos and Laney were the top three teams in the BVC a year ago with Solano finishing fifth. Sillanpaa said, if healthy, his team has a chance to compete for the league crown.

The coach said he tried something new in the fall, trying players at other positions to see where they might excel. They were sometimes surprised to see that several players excelled in multiple ways.

“In fall ball, we wanted to get a good feel for what we had and see who could do what as far as things we may not have asked guys to do last year,” he said. “We know there’s certain guys who can pitch, certain guys can catch, etc. but we also knew there were some untapped opportunities on the field. ... We don’t really carry a big roster here at Solano. We never have and we never will. We want to treat each of these guys as a baseball player first, see what we can get out of them top to bottom.”